A latest report released on Wednesday showed that Apple continued to dominate the mobile PC market in the first quarter of 2012, with the number of its shipment units almost doubling the nearest competitor.
Apple shipped nearly 17.2 million mobile PCs (tablets and laptops) in the first quarter of 2012, capturing 22.5 percent of the market, nearly twice the share of its nearest competitor Hewlett-Packard (HP), according to Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report by research firm NPD DisplaySearch.
The strong demand of iPad fueled Apple's mobile PC growth. The other brands in the top five, namely HP, Acer, Lenovo and Dell, relied on notebook PC shipments to establish their positions.
In the tablet market, Apple continued its dominance with 62.8 percent share in the first quarter, and Samsung had the second place with a market share of 7.5 percent .
In the notebook and mini-notebook market, HP maintained the top ranking with a market share of 16.2 percent. Acer took the number two position with 11.9 percent.
Total mobile PC shipments in the first quarter of 2012 were 76. 2 million units, an increase of 30 percent on a year-over-year basis, but a seasonal drop of 15 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2011.
Global tablet PC shipments grew by 124 percent compared to the same period of last year, while notebooks and mini-notebooks grew only 12 percent.
From a regional perspective, the Chinese market stood out with quarter-over-quarter shipment growth in the first quarter of 2012, the report noted.
"The China region had sequential quarter shipment growth, achieving 13 percent for mobile PCs overall, 12 percent for notebook and mini-note PCs, and 16 percent for tablet PCs," said Richard Shim, NPD DisplaySearch senior analyst. "This is noteworthy given the sequential declines in all other regions as well as the declines in other product categories including TVs and monitors."
After the first iPad was introduced in 2010, the impact of mobile computing on the PC industry has been much clearer, along with the declining desktop demands.
In a presentation given in March, Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook called iPad "the poster child of the post PC world," saying that Apple sold more iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011 than any PC makers sold of their PCs.
